Harriet Martineau (1802-1874), the "founding mother of sociology", was the daughter of an English textile manufacturer who lost his business during a depression in 1825 and died in 1826. Martineau supported herself, her mother, a crippled sister, and alcoholic brother by writing. Her publications include thousands of articles and many books.

Martineau was painfully aware of the discrepancies in opportunities for males and females. For example, she was not given the education afforded her brothers. In 1823 she published her first article On Female Education for the Unitarian Journal which began her career as an outspoken critic of injustices against women, slaves, children, mentally ill, the poor, and prostitutes. She studied stratification in Europe and the United States and advocated protective legislation, equal rights, and education including medical education for women. Her other credits included a popular thirty-four book series published 1832-1834 Illustrations of Political Economy, a scholarly History of England...